21
The use of aluminum has been long in
coming in the auto industry. Longer, by
far, than even some people in the aluminum
industry had imagined.
When Joe Hinrichs, then Ford Motor
executive vice president and president of
the Americas, announced the aluminum-
intensive 2015 F-150 pickup at the North
American International Auto Show in
Detroit on January 13, 2014, it was an
event that resonated throughout the
entire auto industry like a shockwave.
After all, the F-Series has been the best-
selling truck in the U.S. for 37 years
running and the best-selling vehicle in
the U.S. for 32 straight years (in 2013
Ford reported sales of 763,402 units, and
while not all of them are F-150s, you
can be sure a lion's share are).
Suddenly, it seemed, it was prime-time
for aluminum. While there had been
rumors for a few months leading to
the ofcial announcement, when that
announcement was made, it was as
though the nonferrous material had
come out of nowhere.
Funny thing about that.
Tom Boney, vice president and general
manager, Automotive, Novelis North
America—and Novelis ( novelis.com )
is one of Ford's aluminum suppliers
for the F-150 project—says that there
are people who went to university and
studied engineering, then took jobs in
the auto industry with hopes of moving
aluminum into greater use in the
industry. They are now retired. Boney
says that since the Ford announcement,
they've contacted him through conduits
like LinkedIn. These retired engineers
are quite excited. They almost want to
come back to work because what they'd
hoped for has fnally come to fruition.
It's been a long time coming.
t Raj Nair, Ford group vice president,
Global Product Development, at the
introduction of the 2015 F-150 at the
North American Auto Show on January
13, 2014, explaining some of the benefts
of the aluminum technology being
extensively deployed. This was arguably
a tipping point in materials selection for
the auto industry at large.